New York (NY) – The immensely popular Scrabble clone, Scrabulous, is no more thanks to legal action.  Last week, the Hasbro toy company, which owns the rights to Scrabbled, sued the Indian brothers who created Scrabulous for copyright infringement.  Hasbro also filed a DMCA takedown notice to take the game off of Facebook.  Today, Facebook has disabled the game for all US and Canadian users “until further notice”.

According to Facebook, the decision to take down the game was made by the brothers and not the social networking company.  The brothers probably didn’t want Facebook to be caught in the legal crossfire and have vowed to continue their legal defense, but they have a long road ahead of them since their game functions almost exactly like the original Scrabble.

Scrabulous was created by Rajat and Jayant Agarwall from Calcutta, India back in July 2006 and has since become one of the most popular online games with an estimated 500,000 daily players.  The game worked as a Facebook application where Facebook members could play against each other in turn-based games.  Revenue was generated through text-based ads placed on the borders of the screens.

Now you may be asking yourself why Hasbro waited nearly two years to sue Facebook and the Agarwall brothers and the answer is quite simple – money.  Hasbro recently entered into a partnership with Electronic Arts to produce the Scrabble beta online game which is about one week old now.  Scrabble beta, however, isn’t enjoying nearly as much success as Scrabulous and is languishing at around 15,000 daily users.

Thousands of Scrabulous fans have already started and signed various online petitions to save the game from Facebook and to show you how much the players love their game, one Facebook petition is humorously titled, “Give us Scrabulous or Give Us Death!” – Now that’s dedication!

This just shows

Jul 29, 2008 15:14     

This just shows how big companies are poor at knowing what their customers want. Scrabulous was a finely tuned appilcation. Hasbro/EA's version is buggy, and currently not working. Why did they sit on the Scrabble name for over 2 years, while Scrabulous was out and operating quite successfully during that time? Because they had no insight that anyone would want to play online on Facebook? Unfortunately, this is a current trend with big companies who can't keep up with the little guys. Wait for the little guy to produce a brilliantly successful idea and then sue his ass off, shut him down and reap the rewards yourself.

Scrabulous report abuse vote down vote up Votes: +7

Re: this just shows

Jul 29, 2008 15:20     

"wait for the little guy to produce a brilliantly successful idea" - what idea did the brothers have? to put someone else's game on facebook and earn money from it? that's no idea, that's theft my friend. Hasbro has every right to sue the brothers and every right to decide when and how their game appears on Facebook. This isn't a case of corporate bullying, it's a case of stolen property - and that shouldn't stand, not on facebook, not anywhere.

Joe report abuse vote down vote up Votes: +5

Only applies to the United States and Canada.

Jul 29, 2008 15:27     

The Scrabble copyright only applies to the United States and Canada. That is the extent of Hasbro's copyright. This means that people in America who log on facebook will get scrabble, while the rest of the world (which is not affected by the ruling) get scrabulous. Nothing for Scrabulous to worry about considering that the US market in tiny compared to the global market which Hasbro has pretty much blocked itself from by taking this action.

Robert report abuse vote down vote up Votes: +3

Who needs Facebook, Scrabulous.com is still around

Jul 29, 2008 15:46     

I've never used Facebook once, but I still continue to enjoy Scrabulous.com everyday. Perhaps the problem right now is people shouldn't be so reliant on Facebook as a provider of everything, but rather go directly to the source.
Mark report abuse vote down vote up Votes: -1

Another fine copycat from India shot down

Jul 29, 2008 15:48     

About sick and tired of tech jobs going overseas to India, and software, etc...and the attempt to steal yet another idea from an American company went down in flames. Good. The only reason why India has a technology industry is thanks to ideas and intellectual property they stole from others. Oh and guys over there in India, your tech support sucks and no one understands what you are saying. Long live America!

Me report abuse vote down vote up Votes: -12

Of course Hasbro is right to go after the brothers ...

Jul 29, 2008 15:57     

Of course Hasbro is right to go after the brothers for stealing the copyrighted game - but why don't they just make a deal with them to legitimize it, pay them a percentage of the ads, and everyone wins.
John report abuse vote down vote up Votes: +3

Hasbro should just buy the software rights

Jul 29, 2008 16:12     

If Hasbro and EA has software that isn't as desired as Scrabulous, why not just make the deal, legitimize the game and reap the rewards with little or no need for technical support from Hasbro. In the end, my wife will thank you since she is an avid Scrabulous player. Long ago are the days when small shop brilliance ends up working for the man, instead of being sued by the man.
Joshua report abuse vote down vote up Votes: +1

I am torn on this

Jul 29, 2008 18:29     

On the one hand what the Scrabulous people have done is definitely theft, but on the other hand they saw a need quicker than Hasbro and filled it in a far superior way to Hasbro's abysmal offering. I also read in another news article that Hasbro apparently did try to buy them out before suing them, but were declined. If that is the case then I am pretty disappointed. This would have been a very good thing for players, because Scrabulous would have become legitimate.

xrkn report abuse vote down vote up Votes: +0

thief?

Jul 29, 2008 18:57     

Really because there game is similar to Scrable? So if i make a game called WARSHIPS i guess the Battleship Brand has the right to sue me? I wonder why Ford just dont go ahead and sue every auto manufacutre on EARTH since ,by you peoples logic, Ford made the Auto Assembly line and Nissan,Dodge,GM,Toyota,ect ect COPY. O what about PCs,TV, HOUSEs, Bikes. SO i guess Ibanez better not make another guitar witout Fender's permission nor Gibson or Jackson. So JOE Since a Honda civc and a Nissan Sentra operate Dam near exactly the same. From liter displacement of engine to the continual verable timing, to ABS and Airbags and OMG SEATBELTS. I guess Nissan is making money off of Honda IDEA so they shuld be sued? Or the DODGE Chargers and Upcoming 2010 Chevy Camero, Or a f150 and gmc 1500 serria ????? Samsung HDTV sony HDTV ? OMG they all work exactly the same they just change then name of some technology. Tipical americans. get real people.

PwntheNub report abuse vote down vote up Votes: -4

Re: thief

Jul 29, 2008 23:43     

You can't compare what Scrabulous has done to the way automakers make similar cars. Scrabulous isn't "similar" to Scrabble - it's an exact copy, with a different (but very close) name! If an automaker took the Ford Focus, painted it, and changed the name on the hood and resold it, yes, that would be stealing. The "concept" of a car, a TV, or in this case a game is not copyright, it's the implementation, design, and product that is, so if someone builds a product that is an exact copy of yours and try's to sell it off as their own, that's theft. Bah...

Joe report abuse vote down vote up Votes: -1

stolen idea

Jul 30, 2008 08:58     

yea, they make a online version of the exact same game.....it's stealing. just like they steal movie and make exact movie with different actors but same story line..even down to the each line of wording.... yes, it's third world country and they steal idea, movie, software idea...there is no concept of interlectual property...unless it's locally own by some rich guy...then they will go after you. And yes, their support sucks...and they use regular IT training school to replace college grad programmer in US ... and you trust your banking info to some one half across the world making 5$ a day? I don't think so. U.S. already had factories shipped to china... and then service industry shipped to india... what else is left for U.S. citizen to do?

yo report abuse vote down vote up Votes: -2

No one's stealing anything

Jul 30, 2008 10:17     

but if you feel better freaking out, go for it.
Hax Or report abuse vote down vote up Votes: +0

what version?

Jul 30, 2008 11:49     

Hi, In my opinion Scrabulous is just a different enhanced VERSION of the scrabble. It's only a good game and only so much importance is to be given to games. So what if people want to improve an idea and make it better? Is that wrong, really? In my opinion we are restricting creative talent and ideas. This is just like different versions of software, right? Pick the one you want and use it if it helps improve your life or mind, for the better!

SV report abuse vote down vote up Votes: +1

what version?

Jul 30, 2008 12:20     

Just like major Unix shell scripting languages... there's the old sh version and the newer ksh which is a major enhancement over the sh scripting language. I personlly would refuse to work on the sh only because ksh is just way better user friendliness... No one should throw off ksh, please!
SV report abuse vote down vote up Votes: +0